[OutVoice] Lance Bass: I'm Gay

BMGNedra at aol.com BMGNedra at aol.com
Wed Jul 26 10:07:56 CDT 2006


Lance Bass: I'm Gay
Wednesday Jul 26, 2006 8:30am EST

CREDIT: WIREIMAGE  

Lance Bass, the former 'N Sync heartthrob, reveals that he is  gay, in an 
exclusive interview with PEOPLE. 

"I knew that I was in this  popular band and I had four other guys' careers 
in my hand, and I knew that if I  ever acted on it or even said (that I was 
gay), it would overpower everything,"  says Bass, referring to bandmates Joey 
Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, JC Chasez and  Justin Timberlake. 

"I didn’t know: Could that be the end of ’N Sync? So  I had that weight on 
me of like, ‘Wow, if I ever let anyone know, it's bad.' So  I just never did," 
he says speaking about his sexual orientation for the first  time with PEOPLE. 

Now, after years of keeping his personal life private,  the Mississippi-bred, 
Southern Baptist-reared Bass, 27, is publicly revealing  what he first shared 
with his friends, then his shocked family. 



"He took years to really think about how he was going to tell  everyone," 
says his close buddy Fatone, 29, who was the first 'N Sync bandmate  to find out 
Bass is gay. "I back him up 100 percent." Adds Bass’s longtime pal,  actress 
Christina Applegate: "I've always accepted him as who he is. It's about  his 
own serenity at this point." 

Having pursued acting, producing and –  most memorably – space flight after ’
N Sync went on hiatus in 2002, Bass now is  looking ahead to new beginnings. 
He is in a "very stable" relationship with  model-actor-Amazing Race winner 
Reichen Lehmkuhl, 32, and is developing  an Odd Couple-inspired sitcom pilot 
with Fatone in which his character  will be gay. 

Mostly, though, he’s just enjoying the relief that comes  with the 
culmination of a long, at times emotionally fraught journey.  

"The thing is, I’m not ashamed – that’s the one thing I want to say," he  
explains of his decision to come out. "I don't think it's wrong, I'm not  
devastated going through this. I'm more liberated and happy than I’ve been my  whole 
life. I'm just happy." 


Timberlake, Kirkpatrick, Fatone, Bass and Chasez of N'Sync in  1997
CREDIT: ANDRE CSILLAG / REX
As for why he's talking about this now Bass says, "The main  reason I wanted 
to speak my mind was that (the rumors) really were starting to  affect my 
daily life. Now it feels like it's on my terms. I'm at peace with my  family, my 
friends, myself and God so there's really nothing else that I worry  about." 




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